No. 10 Baseball vs. No. 15 Wheaton
NEWMAC Tournament Championship Series
Saturday, May 15 | Govoni Field | Babson Park, Mass.
Sunday, May 16 | Sidell Stadium | Norton, Mass.

	The Matchup
Avg. (NEWMAC Rank)	Category	Avg. (NEWMAC Rank)
.280 (3rd)	Batting Avg.	.315 (1st)
.405 (1st)	On-base Pct.	.395 (2nd)
8.7 (1st)	Runs	8.1 (2nd)
2.47 (2nd)	ERA	2.01 (1st)
0.93 (2nd)	WHIP	0.90 (1st)
8.93 (2nd)	K/9	9.38 (1st)
1.45 (1st)	BB/9	1.70 (2nd)
.971 (2nd)	Fielding Pct.	.974 (1st)

SERIES SCHEDULE
• Game 1: Saturday, 12 p.m. at Babson
• Game 2: Saturday, 3 p.m. at Babson
• Game 3: Sunday, 1 p.m. at Wheaton (if necessary)

THE SERIES
• Babson is 31-46 all-time against Wheaton in a series that dates back to 1998.
• The Beavers and Lyons split a four-game series in Babson Park back on April 17-18.
• The teams have split their last eight games since 2019 on the heels of Babson winning nine of 10 against Wheaton in 2017 and 2018.

POSTSEASON HISTORY
• Babson is 10-10 all-time against Wheaton in the conference playoffs.
• The Beavers and Lyons have met in the postseason in each of the last four years and have played 10 times in the NEWMAC Tournament going back to 2014.
• Babson has won five in a row versus Wheaton in the postseason, including an elimination game in 2019 and a semifinal series sweep at Govoni Field in 2017.
• The Lyons swept the upstart Beavers in the 2016 NEWMAC Championship Series.

LAST MEETING
• Graduate student Matthew Valente drove in a pair of runs and sophomore Michael Cook hit a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift the Beavers to a 5-3 win over Wheaton in game two of a doubleheader on April 18 in Babson Park.
• Junior Andrew Dembowski singled twice and scored a run and three Babson relievers combined to allow just one hit over the final 3.2 innings.
• Junior Zach DeMattio went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Lyons, who left eight runners on base.

SCOUTING THE LYONS
• Second-seeded and 15th-ranked Wheaton (14-2) advanced to the championship series with a sweep of third-seeded Coast Guard last Saturday.
• DeMattio homered in a 3-1 game one win and finished off a 2-1 victory in game two with his 12th-inning RBI single for the Lyons, who saw both senior Gavin Reily and junior Griffin Young allow one run over 8.0 innings on the day.
• Junior Jacob Studley is batting .471 with eight doubles, four home runs and 16 runs batted in, senior Brody Ashley is hitting .365 with six doubles and six RBI, and DeMattio enters the weekend with a .364 average to go along with four homers, 16 RBI and 20 runs scored.
• Reily (5-1) owns a 1.96 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 41.1 innings pitched, Young is 3-0 with a 1.85 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 34.0 innings, and senior Josh Roberge has gone 2-0 with four saves while not allowing an earned run in nine appearances out of the bullpen.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Top-seeded and 10th-ranked Babson (12-2) advanced to its fourth straight NEWMAC final with a sweep of fourth-seeded Springfield last Saturday.
• Senior Jordy Allard gave up one earned run over 7.0 innings a 4-2 win in game one, while Cook, Dembowski, graduate student AJ DiFillipo and junior Jack Pirkl combined to drive in nine runs to lift the Beavers to an 11-8 victory in game two.
• Pirkl is batting .341 with three doubles, 11 RBI and 11 runs scored, DiFillipo is hitting .304 with four doubles, a homer and 16 runs batted in, and Valente enters the series with a .300 average to go along with nine extra-base hits and 15 RBI.
• Allard (6-0) leads the NEWMAC in ERA (0.84), WHIP (0.58) and strikeouts (48) against just one walk in 43.0 innings, Gottesman is 1-0 with 4.71 ERA in 21.0 innings of work, and senior Henry Leake has four saves and has not allowed a run in seven appearances out of the bullpen.

TWO'S A CROWD
• Despite both teams being nationally-ranked, a smaller NCAA Tournament field means that more than likely only the winner of this weekend's best-of-3 series will advance to the Division III Championship.
• Wheaton remained third in the most recent NCAA regional rankings, while Babson stayed fourth.

CALL TO THE 'PEN
• Leake, graduate students Will Gallagher and Jack Theriault and sophomore Stephen McLendon have combined to hold opposing hitters to a .173 average while striking out 29 and giving up just one unearned run in 24 innings pitched this spring.
• Overall, Babson relievers have gone 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA and are holding hitters to a .214 average in 47.1 innings of work.

STREAKING BEAVERS
• Dembowski has started each of the last seven games and is batting .348 (8-for-23) with three doubles, six stolen bases and nine runs scored during this stretch.
• Junior Josh Yellen has recorded four straight two-hit games and is batting .533 with three doubles, a triple, five RBI and six runs scored during this span.
• Pirkl is 10-for-17 (.588) during his current four-game hit streak, which includes three doubles, four RBI and four runs scored.
• First-year Francis Kiely has a hit in each of his last four starts, junior Thomas Lapham is riding a four-game hitting streak and has driven in a run in five of the last six contests, and junior Sean Burychka has reached base safely in six consecutive games.

PITCHING PROWESS
• Pitching dominated the four-game regular season series between the teams as the Babson and Wheaton pitching staffs combined to hold hitters to just a .202 average.
• The Beavers rank first in Division III in walks allowed per nine innings (1.45) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.15), second in WHIP (0.93), ninth in earned run average (2.47) and 11th in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.90).
• The Lyons rank first nationally in WHIP (0.90), second in walks allowed per nine innings (1.70) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.52), fourth in ERA (2.01) and fifth in hits allowed per nine innings (6.42).

NUMBER TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 10-0 this season and 39-2 going back to the 2019 campaign when giving up five runs or less.